Hello folks. I have just noticed something very strange. If you type in 'Elite' in Google, you get a 'Call Of Duty' link as the first result. I think they are trying to cash in on the recently massive amounts of ' Elite ' queries into search engines. This is bad new for us all. They are obviously trying to 'steer' people away from this project and direct people to their own site. Isn't there something that DB could do like get his lawyers on to them or something?

@Jon - Valid concern and one I hope they will address. A complaint in general about military lasers was that you could pretty much eliminate all enemy at range which really ruined it for me too. I am hoping that less damage / more shields will prolong fights to at least allow the enemy to engage in a dog fight (but not so long that I fall asleep!)

DB/Frontier: Good to hear from you, your comments will hopefully stem the tide of dissent. Perhaps it would be wise to post an official KS update every couple of days, even if you have nothing radically new to deliver, people just need to see that something is happening on the page. We all have high hopes for the game, even the doubters; however the entire community (developers and fans) need to pull together in order to maximise the potential. As a start, it would probably be wise to add links to the official Elite page and discussion forums.

I played F:E2 as a boy and have lots of good memories, now I'm 34. I'm a programmer and been developing my 'version' of Frontier in Java and OpenGL for some years (it's not going to go nowhere but I loved to do it) It has even shaders! I'd like to join FD but I don't speak english so well to be in a british company (I'm Spanish)

I've selected the first beta level and convinced my brother and a friend of getting two copies. I'm also spreading the word on twitter and writing a blog post about it (will post it here). I like all the info David is giving, it's just the game I want or better!

Are others from the FD team allowed out in public to free him up? I get that DB is busy, pulled many ways and may not have enough hours in the day to be here as often as we might wish.

Could someone (who may vary from time to time) from the team dedicate a couple of hours each day over the remainder of the KS term to make the Backer base feel a bit more part of a team effort? Our side of the conversation is more than covering the costs of such a resource deployment.

Design point: Will a key weakness of Beeb Elite be prevented - it was tedious but easy to rack up the kills by just lining up military lasers on the space station doors, then culling the vipers that swarmed out before they had the chance to do anything hostile. Without going to death star proportions (though copyright issues aside it would be kind of cool to reduce a vanity named sponsor's plannet to rubble), some hostile capability built into the space stations themselves would be good.

Something doesn't seem right.... they have a potential £1.2 million coming at them if this Kickstarter campaign works out... but they can't be bothered to put more than 10 minutes into the campaign? Either Frontier Developments purposely wants this to fail, or they are just testing the waters with no serious commitment. Star Citizen like many other projects has over 22 updates, and they already reached their funding goal many, many days ago. You have a totally committed fan base here that is being absolutely left out in the cold. At least I feel a little disappointed.

@FD - Thank you for your comments and responses. Good to know that the creator is around to answer some questions. Looking forward to some more specific information about the game. One thing - the concept art of the Cobra (?) docking - if the graphics look that good I am temped to up my pledge one more time to the max !

Maybe large pledges could get custom playing cards, with ships, stations, planets and inventory items as the suits, and the Elite logo as the backs.
I dabble in a bit of conjuring, and US Playing Card company do some of the best card stock ( http://www.usplayingcard.com/pages/custom_cards/10.php ) other playing card manufacturers are available (I'm in no way affiliated with them, I'm a 30-50 s/w dev in London, so not stereotypical here :-) )

Arg no, not an MMO. Cooperative play, pillocking around inside each others instances, that kind of thing is a thumbs-up though. I don't like MMOs all that much. The only one I play is Eve and I feel pretty powerless inside it. There are lots of players there who can play 24/7 and don't seem to have jobs.

DB - Jason Schupfer - you will be able to play with vast numbers of real players (assuming vast numbers get the game!), but it will be your choice to do so. I imagine it will be the default choice, but the point is there will be a choice

That has got me excited.. I dont really play games anymore.. as i flip flop from online to single player and never invest in either.. but thats got me excited

Jason Schupfer - you will be able to play with vast numbers of real players (assuming vast numbers get the game!), but it will be your choice to do so. I imagine it will be the default choice, but the point is there will be a choice.

@ Jason Schupfer. It would seem to me that allowing both options, either limited MP or jumping headfirst into the multiverse, would solve the problem. That way if you want to limit to just a few, you can, but if you don't mind a wider community of players, you can just flip a switch. Then the universe will be populated with as few or as many PCs as the user allows. Which if you can allow strangers into your game, is kind of what it sounds like?

I would imagine that you would be able to allow strangers to join your game yes

I am picturing the multiplayer aspect of this like a session based model other games have with drop in/out MP, such as Gears Of War etc

That way you can limit it or leave it open like DB says

How this will play out in reality of this game I dont know, as this is (or should be) a free flowing game, where there are no set paths, with people making their own way doing whatever they want. So how someone joining my session will change things im not sure?

More details will be realeased no doubt in time, but I am glad with what has been said so far about its MP aspect. MMO isnt the way for this.

2nd time today the lottery winner question =)
not sure about lottery winners, but there are other ways to make money. surely there are some old farts around that have some cash to throw at worthwhile projects or even just at a chance to re-live their childhood dreams ^^

"Choosing a limited group of real people that can appear in your game (which could be just you alone), including allowing strangers to appear."

I got a good feeling about such a adhoc way of doing multiplayer. What I'm thinking right now is something like; most ships out there are npc, but you never know when/if that last pirate you shot down was a PC in his own game. And maybe some anarchy or police state systems where you can bet on dogfights etc. the possibillities have me quite twichy about elite again.

I'm really pleased that the Multiplayer aspect of this is likely to be something I can control, rather than being thrown in at the deep end with far more experienced 10 year olds. That's what puts me off Xbox live. I played Battlefield 3 for a week, great game, but I was crap at it so I lost interest.

Elite Frontier had so much more depth than a quick fix game, that's what I am after. (Although sometimes I used to load it up just to have a shoot out with the cops :)

I'm very keen also in meeting up with all the backers online too, as I get the feeling we are all old farts who don't care for all that gung-ho nonsense :)

I'm totally upping my pledge in the closing week, just need to get Christmas out the way and see what I have left.

@DB Really good to see you picking up on some points being mentioned here, its what it needed! We all have faith in you, regardless of the negative comments! People just needed some feedback/info!

I am glad you are not taking it the MMO route, I just dont feel the need to do that with this IP. EVE caters for that, no need to try to emulate what that has. As Econundrum, I also have little time for MMO's. I like the idea of some of them, even tried to play them, but ultimatly run out of spare time to commit, fall behind and lose interest. That and struggle to group etc with clique types for quests.

Multiplayer is a good idea if implemented well, but could butcher the spirit of what came before if done badly

I would be happy for E:D to be single player only, but am keen to see what the multiplayer element could bring...

Single biggest thing I wanted added to Frontier was the ability to have a bigger impact on the existing galaxy by creating your own space ports for example. I imagine if the worlds and cities are procedural, this should be within reach these days?